Introduction to the Three Major Coffee Bean Varieties: Are Premium Arabica Coffee Beans Expensive?

Coffee Bean Varieties and Arabica Coffee Sharing by FrontStreet Coffee

Arabica varieties account for approximately 70% of the world's total production, making them the nobility among coffee bean varieties. They have higher requirements for climate, temperature, and humidity, and demand more advanced cultivation techniques, but thanks to their pleasant aroma and rich flavor, they have always been the best-selling variety worldwide. However, their growth cycle is very slow, taking nearly 5 years to yield a harvest, so they are mostly used for specialty coffee.

Robusta varieties account for the remaining 30% of world production, with a status equivalent to that of rural farmers. They are hardy, have strong survival capabilities, tolerate both high and low temperatures, and have a slightly bitter flavor. Their caffeine content is 2-3 times that of Arabica. They typically grow on slopes at altitudes of 200-600 meters, require minimal human care, so their prices are relatively low, and they are mostly used for canned and instant coffee.

Arabica and Robusta mostly grow in temperate climate regions, primarily distributed between 25 degrees south latitude and 25 degrees north latitude around the equator, an area also known as the "coffee belt." This region covers most countries in Central Africa, East Africa, the Middle East, India, South Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Coffee is concentrated in this region because the plant is extremely vulnerable to frost damage, and the temperature and humidity of tropical regions are most suitable for coffee growth.

Variety Classification

Because there are so many sub-branches under the two main coffee varieties, we will only introduce some of the more famous ones.

Arabica Coffee:

Typica originates from Ethiopia and southeastern Sudan, making it one of the oldest varieties among Arabica. Its top leaves are reddish-brown, which is why it is known as red-top coffee, and it is also called old-variety small-grain coffee. Due to low yield and difficult cultivation, its price is much higher than ordinary small-grain coffee. However, its flavor performance is excellent, making it a widely recognized specialty coffee variety.

Robusta Coffee:

Kopi Luwak, also known as civet coffee, is made when civets eat coffee cherries and excrete the coffee beans largely unchanged. People extract the beans from the droppings and process them.

This coffee is produced in Indonesia and is currently one of the most expensive coffees in the world, with prices reaching hundreds of dollars per pound. When civets eat ripe coffee cherries and pass them through their digestive system, the resulting coffee takes on a unique flavor from fermentation in the stomach, making it highly sought after on the international market.

Knowledge Extension

Liberica, like Robusta, is highly pest-resistant and suitable for hot, humid environments, but it has not been widely cultivated and is mostly grown only in parts of Africa.

In Brief

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall that loves to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We share unreservedly just to help more friends fall in love with coffee, and we hold three low-discount coffee events every month. This is because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends drink the best coffee at the lowest prices, which has also been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Among the many specialty Arabicas on the market, FrontStreet Coffee especially recommends a few. For natural-process Ethiopian character, the FrontStreet Huakui (Flower Queen) from Hambela, Guji, uses local heirloom varieties and a classic natural process, with flavors of cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, and blueberry - the very fragrant berry cup that won first place in that year's TOH green bean competition. For the washed side, FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Worka Cooperative is top-graded G1, showing elegant white florals, citrus, orange, and green tea.

If you prefer balance and sweetness, FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is Typica, an ancestral Arabica variety brought from Martinique to Jamaica in the 1820s; after more than 200 years it has evolved notably better disease resistance, and its gentle, well-rounded cup is extremely hard to match. FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate is a classic Yellow Bourbon with cream, peanut, toasted bread, and sugarcane notes, and it suits pour-over, moka pot, and espresso machines alike.